


Surly

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [945]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 13:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12632106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Gibbs has always been a bastard. Losing his family didn't make him any easier to get along with. Just ask the ex Mrs. Gibbs, but what's this, they all think the basement is haunted?Tony has always wanted a family. Will he find what he's looking for? Will Gibbs be able to move on from his wife's death?Note: I have twisted canon and this story will not follow canon exactly.





	Surly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Appletini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appletini/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Appletini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appletini/pseuds/Appletini) in the [NCIS_Prompts_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017) collection. 



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 12/02/2001 for the word [surly](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2001/12/02/surly).
> 
> surly  
> Ill-humored; churlish in manner or mood; sullen and gruff.  
> Menacing or threatening in appearance, as of weather conditions; ominous.
> 
> This was requested by Appletini who prompted me through [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). I hope she likes it. 
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> Gibbs is a lonely soldier. His wife is dead but she haunts him. He doesn't believe she's real but he's reluctant to let go even if she isn't. She haunts him for ten years. He marries again and all his future ex-wives are afraid of his basement, believing it's haunted. Then he meets Tony and falls in love the second time. Tony starts to hang around but instead of fearing it, he embraces the basement as a sanctuary and says he feels at home there. Even when Gibbs isn't there, Tony feels something in the basement. A presence that feels like family. Tony has looked for family all his life. When he starts a relationship with Gibbs the feeling only intensifies. Until one day he sees her.
> 
> I was listening to Bobby Vinton's Mr. Lonely =)
> 
> **End Prompt**  
> 
> As always comments, kudos, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. 
> 
> Prompts are open. More information is available at the end of the work if you want to prompt me yourself.

# 

Surly

Gibbs watched all the other men in his battalion talk about their wives and girlfriends and couldn’t help feeling separated and alone. His wife and child had died during his last deployment. He didn’t have anyone waiting for him at home anymore. 

He was all alone. He hadn’t been sure about enlisting again after what happened to his wife and child, but the Marines were literally all he had left. He was a good Marine.

Still every day Gibbs was deployed, Gibbs found more and more that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. He’d lost his reason to fight. He’d thought being away from his house would make it easier, but with the men always talking about their girlfriends or wives, it only made it worse.

Gibbs didn’t think he could re-enlist after this one. He’d finish out his current enlistment as he wasn’t one to run away from his commitments, but that was it. He’d be done after this one.

At this point in time, he didn’t know what he’d do when he left the Marines for good. He just knew he couldn’t do this anymore. Maybe at home, he’d find some reason to fight or at least live again.

He was only going through the motions out here. Even half hearted, he was still one of the best, but it wasn’t long before it caught up with him. A bomb explosion resulted in him being sent home on the injured list again. 

Between the two bombs, the Marines gave him an honorable discharge. With his knee and shoulder injury, he’d be too slow to continue where he was. He went to rehab and got most of the motion back eventually. 

He was almost able to function as a normal person again. He spent most of his time in the basement. He felt closest to Shannon there for some reason. 

Still he wasn’t rolling in money. He needed a job or a rich wife or something. While he hadn’t taken Mike Franks up on his offer to kill Pedro Hernandez, Franks had still offered him a job at NIS when he’d finally gotten out of the corp.

Gibbs had finally decided to take Franks up on the offer. He hoped it was what Shannon would have wanted. Though he could never be sure of that. 

He started to build a boat in his basement during his off hours. In fact, that was what led him to meeting Diane. She reminded him of Shannon, at least in the physical features. She had that lovely red hair that had drawn him to Shannon. 

Her spitfire personality intrigued him. He never had found out what she was doing in the hardware store that day. He’d gone there to see about getting some more wood for his boat. They started dating shortly after that meeting and next thing he knew, they were married. 

He wondered if they were moving too fast, but brushed his worries aside just happy to have someone in his life again. Case after case kept him out of the home, so when he was home he spent most of his time in the basement. He still felt closest to Shannon there. 

Diane had come down to his basement exactly once before refusing to set foot in there anymore. She insisted the basement was haunted. He had no idea what she was talking about.

Instead of going into the basement she would screech at him from the doorway. He had to admit, her screeching was not at all pleasant and he was glad that she wouldn’t come closer. Even from there it hurt his ears. 

Finally, Diane couldn’t take it anymore. During one of her screeches, which Gibbs supposed might be classified as an argument, she got so frustrated she came storming down the stairs and hit him over the head with a 7-iron. She’d immediately been horrified by what she’d done and had called 911 before fleeing Gibbs’ house.

Gibbs received the divorce papers in the mail the next day. He supposed he should have seen it coming. What he hadn’t seen coming was her emptying out their shared bank account. 

He was grateful he had the job with NCIS at that point in time or he’d have been struggling to find a way to pay the electric bills and get food. Fortunately the house was paid for in full, so that was no longer much of a worry. He returned to his basement and when he finished the boat, he painted the name Diane on it and burned it.

He felt a feeling of satisfaction and happiness that wasn’t his as the boat burned, but he shrugged it off as his own. Still he didn’t have anything else to do, so he went back to the hardware store to get more lumber so he could start another boat. A month or so later on his way home from a case, he stopped off at a bar and there he met Rebecca.

Rebecca Chase was beautiful. Thin, lovely, and again the gorgeous red hair he loved. He immediately started flirting with her.

She seemed to return his advances. She too felt the basement was haunted. The more she questioned his desire to spend time in the basement, the more surly Gibbs got. 

One night, Gibbs returned home early for once. They’d spent the night chasing down leads and had finally managed to close the case around noon that day. He’d stumbled into his house exhausted only to find Rebecca in their bed with another man. 

He glared at her and ordered her and the man out. That was the first night he actually slept under his boat. He just couldn’t bear to sleep in the bed that she’d been sharing with another man in addition to him. 

Rebecca didn’t even try to talk to him about it or if she did, he ignored her. It wasn’t too long before divorce papers arrived again. He signed them and continued on with his life, spending most of his time in the basement or at NCIS.

He eventually replaced the bed. Or actually, Stephanie did after she found out why Gibbs refused to sleep in it. Stephanie Flynn, Ducky had introduced them.

They’d had just enough time to get married before Gibbs ended up in Russia for a year. Stephanie had decided to come with him. She had the same complaint as his other wives that the basement was haunted and refused to stay in his house without him.

Gibbs didn’t mind her tagging along. It gave him some much needed companionship and cover for his mission. Shortly after they returned to the US, she hit him in the head with a baseball bat. 

Gibbs still isn’t sure what he’d done to deserve that, but he let her go when she sent him divorce papers. After that, he swore off women. His bank account couldn’t take anymore alimony. Plus they always seemed to come after him with hard implements and he was tired of having Ducky patch him up from yet another ex-wife leaving.

He wouldn’t admit it to himself, but part of the reason he stopped looking for women may have had something to do with Tony. Tony had joined his team two years ago, two years after Stephanie left. Tony and him worked better together than he had with anyone else ever.

Gibbs had still been struggling when he met Tony. While not a redhead like his ex-wives, Tony had a special exuberance that Gibbs could see despite everything that was going wrong in Tony’s life at the time. Gibbs had had no choice, but to hire him. 

It was the first time, he’d gotten along so easily with someone since Franks left. Tony and him just meshed. They weren’t dating. They were just partners at work, but they worked like they’d been married for years.

Gibbs, without realizing it, began to feel like he had a family again. As Tony brought more and more people into the team, the family grew larger and larger. Tony, too, had been looking for family all his life. 

The more time he spent with Gibbs at work, the closer they got and the more like family Gibbs felt to him. Tony started hanging out with Gibbs in the basement. Unlike Gibbs ex-wives, Tony felt even more welcomed in the basement.

He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like there was someone else there and that together all of them were family. As he spent more and more time with Gibbs both inside and outside of work, Tony knew he was falling hard. He just hoped Gibbs was too. 

Gibbs meanwhile didn’t know what to think. Here he had someone who wasn’t afraid of his basement. Someone who actually enjoyed spending time in it. 

Gibbs started feeling things he hadn’t felt since Shannon’s death. It scared him. He worried that he was replacing Shannon in his heart. 

He didn’t want to be unfaithful to Shannon, but he couldn’t stop himself from falling in love with Tony either. Things stayed that way for a while. Gibbs refusing to admit he loved Tony and Tony spending most of his off time in Gibbs’ basement. 

Sometimes Tony even spent time in Gibbs’ basement when Gibbs wasn’t around. In fact, if Gibbs didn’t know better he’d think they were dating. 

Tony brought him coffee. Tony made him dinner. Tony spent time with him in his basement. Gibbs did know better though. Too bad Tony didn’t. 

While they hadn’t had the relationship discussion, Tony thought they were both moving in the same direction. Even though they hadn’t said, Tony thought they were dating. Still it bothered Tony that Gibbs never said or did anything for him.

Feeling a bit depressed as Gibbs missed his birthday, Tony had settled on Gibbs’ basement step. He didn’t know where Gibbs was. That was when he saw her. 

Shannon appeared before him in all her shiny glowy see through self. That’s when he knew everything would be alright. “Shannon? How did you do it?”

“I just loved him.”

“I love him too.”

Gibbs came in at the end of this and couldn’t believe his eyes. “Shannon?”

“Hey Jethro. I think you have something to say to Tony.”

“I do. I love you too, Tony.” Gibbs announced, knowing he had Shannon’s blessing now.

After that point, they were family. No more discussion was needed as they all hugged. They couldn’t feel Shannon physically, but they could feel her presence and emotions. 

It was enough for both of them. They finally had family again, but most of all they had each other and that was worth everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I'm looking for a writing buddy. Full details are [here](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/53610.html). It is friends locked, so you'll have to add me as a friend on lj before you can read it. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them.
> 
>  **Warning! Warning! 2017 ends in about 2 months. When 2017 ends, the 2017 prompt collection will close.** You have 50 prompts you can use for 2017. Use them up before they go away. Prompts are currently open. If you'd like to prompt me, please do so [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). Note you have to be an ao3 member to do this. 
> 
> When 2018 starts, I will open a 2018 Prompt collection. In fact, I have already created the 2018 Prompt collection [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile), but sign ups are closed until 2018, so you won't be able to sign up and prompt me on this collection, yet. The 2017 prompts continue to remain over for you to prompt me with until the end of the year.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback here if you think something could be improved(either in the prompt process or the story itself).


End file.
